Optical fiber cables are utilized in a wide variety of applications. In many instances, the cables include tight buffered optical fibers. A tight buffered optical fiber typically includes an optical waveguide fiber, one or more protective coatings (e.g., a primary coating, a secondary coating, etc.) surrounding an outer surface of the fiber, and a buffer layer formed to surround the optical fiber and its protective coating(s). The buffer layer is formed in intimate contact with the protective coating(s), requiring the buffer layer to be stripped in order to access the optical fiber. For example, during installation or patching of an optical fiber cable, a technician is often required to strip a buffer layer from an optical fiber in order to terminate the optical fiber.
Conventional tight buffers are often difficult to strip or remove from an underlying optical fiber at lengths longer than an inch or two without damaging the protective coating(s) or breaking the fibers. As a result, the stripping of conventional buffer tubes often requires multiple passes of stripping small segments of a tight buffer layer until a desired strip length is reached. This process is time consuming and inconvenient. Accordingly, there is an opportunity for improved tight buffer designs that are relatively easy to strip from optical fibers.